


A Remarkable Flying Machine

by MrToddWilkins (orphan_account)



Series: The Jeannieverse [3]
Category: I Dream of Jeannie, Sweet Valley High - Francine Pascal
Genre: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 70s aesthetic, Backups, Biracial Cara Walker, Capcom - Freeform, Cara’s just too cute and she must be protected, F/M, I blame The Six Million Dollar Man, I’ll basically be just cribbing off the STS-1 transcript for the later portions of this story, Med Fet, Medical Procedures, Mission Control - Freeform, STS-1, Transcripts, a lunar mining mission, classified spaceflights
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:07:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24986557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/MrToddWilkins
Summary: Tony and Roger pilot the first Space Shuttle mission.....C’mon. It’s the IDoJ world. There’ll be hijinks. Anyone knows that.
Relationships: Allyson Creemore/Calvin Billings, Anthony “Tony” Nelson & Roger Healey & Cara Walker & Emily Mayer, Cara Walker/Rudy Wells, Holly Hills/Willie Sharp, Ken Matthews/Emily Mayer
Series: The Jeannieverse [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1753870





	1. My Master, the Press Conference Subject

STS-1 preflight press briefing

Moderated by Michael Brandow

Brandow:Alright,everybody got their hair down?.......CBS,how about you?.........  
Okay. So today is January 16,1981,as you all know (chuckles), and welcome to the launch-minus-30 days briefing with the crew of STS-1,the first mission of the Space Shuttle,America's space workhorse. On February 15,assuming no delays,veteran astronauts Anthony Nelson and Roger Healey and rookies Emily Mayer and Cara Walker will fly space shuttle Columbia into space on a two day mission. The mission objectives are to evaluate Columbia's performance during launch,in the space environment,and on reentry and landing. The crew has been training for this mission for the past 2 years,and I believe they are ready to go (chuckles).

Anthony Nelson:I believe we are,Mike.

Brandow:Nelson,Healey,Walker,and Mayer will explain the mission plan,and then we'll be ready to take questions from the ladies and gentlemen of the press. When we get to that,please wait until the microphone is with you before stating your name and affiliation. And with that,I'll turn it over to Colonel Nelson. Colonel?

Nelson:The flight plan really begins with our wake-up call,about four and a half hours prior to launch. We’ll have breakfast,put on our spacesuits,and we'll be driven to the launchpad in the Astrovan we've been using since late in the Gemini days. Crip and Terry - that’s Bob Crippen and Terry Hart - get us strapped into the Shuttle about T minus two hours, we check in with the Cape and Houston,they close the hatch downstairs,and we get ready for launch. I sit in the left front seat,Roger rides shotgun,and Cara’ll be behind and between us,with Emily on her left. Launch is planned for about 7 am as I understand,so you’ll all have to get up bright and early (laughter).

Healey:About 9 minutes before launch is when the fun begins. The countdown picks up for the last time and they’ll retract what we call the “beanie cap” - the little vent hood atop our External Tank. About a minute later they’ll retract the crew access arm,and at about T minus 5 minutes I’ll start the three APUs - the Auxiliary Power Units. By T minus 2 1/2 minutes or so we oughta be in launch configuration. At T minus 6 seconds the three main engines light up,and when that happens we get a little twang - what that means is we tilt forward 45 degrees or so,and when we come back to vertical at T-0, the boosters ignite and we’re off like a shot. We’ll clear the tower in about 8 seconds and call Mission Control as we start to roll over.

At about 50 seconds in we pass through maximum dynamic pressure:at that point the aerodynamic stress on Shuttle will be at its highest. At 65 seconds we begin throttling up the main engines,and about that time we can no longer use our ejection seats. Houston’ll give us a call and we’ll pull our pins to disable the seats. A minute later we get off the boosters,which’ll fall back - be parachuted into the Atlantic for recovery - we’ve got a couple of ships which will bring ‘em back to the Cape for refurbishment and reuse on later missions. 

From there on up until orbit is what we call ‘second stage’ - ‘first stage’ meaning when we’re on the SRBs. There’s really not much to this flight phase except monitoring the engines,hoping nothing goes wrong. At about 6 minutes we do enter a slight dive to ease the pressure on the main engines,and at 8 1/2 minutes we’ll have main engine cutoff and we’ll jettison the tank. Once that’s done we ignite the OMS engines twice - once at 12 minutes or so to establish the orbit and again at 43 minutes over the Yarragadee tracking station to circularize the orbit. We’ll doff our suits,wait for Houston to give the Go for on-orbit,then open the payload bay doors.

Mayer:The next day and a half or so is the on-orbit phase of the mission. The first thing we’ll do is to inspect the payload bay,make sure nothing got damaged,and then we’ll activate the crew systems:things like the aft flight deck controls,the galley,and the flight instrumentation in the bay. At 4 hours and 6 hours respectively we have two further OMS burns to raise the orbit,then we take a meal. At about 9 hours we have our last big event of the day:we’ll do a televised mission status report. It’ll be late afternoon by then,so I’ll use that opportunity to take you guys on a televised tour of the orbiter. We’ll do some more systems checks and at about 10 hours we’ll bed down for the night.

The wakeup call for Day 2 comes at about 18 hours,and from there we’ll go into breakfast. We’ll start the day with some tests of the RCS- the Reaction Control System thrusters. After that we’ll open and close the bay doors a few times. We’ll have a couple TV shows,test the orbiter systems,and at 31 hours or so we’ll call it a day and turn in.


	2. The Proposition

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony gets an offer he can’t refuse from an old friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Regular conversations and air-to-ground transmissions - normal speech
> 
> PAO updates - italics, without quotations

_May 19,1978_

In the viewing room at NASA Mission Control stood US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Tony Nelson,who had made five spaceflights. Spacewalker,moonwalker,expert pilot,geologist,selenologist,author,public speaker,husband,father,brother....these were just some of the hats the handsome New Jerseyite had worn over the years. Now,wearing the hat of a friend,he was about to watch his esteemed colleague Roger Healey come back from a visit to the Salyut 5 space station.

_This is Paul Cunningham at Mission Control-Houston. We're now at 8 minutes past the deorbit burn. We've received telemetric confirmation of Service Module jettison from Goldstone in California,no word as yet from the crew. We expect crew confirmation during the White Sands pass. The recovery team reports very good weather in the Atlantic recovery zone:6 foot waves,ceiling of about 15,000 feet,winds out of the south. We anticipate no problems with recovery of the Arcturus command module. White Sands has acquisition now. Let's bring up the line for this pass._

"Hello,Houston,this is Arcturus. Burn complete,and we just got rid of the SM."  
"Copy that,Colonel. Standing by on the burn report. Over."  
"Okay. Hank's got it."  
"Ignition was on time, burn duration was 0:46, that's 46 seconds, delta-vc was 302 feet per second. Fuel remaining was 29% at cutoff, imbalance plus 75."

_That last by Hank Hartsfield refers to the fuel-oxidizer balance ratio. This was a fuel-rich burn...._

".,,We'd like for Hank to do the GDC align. One last note. Battery A will fail about the time the drogues open. You've enough in the other three for splashdown. Over."  
"Understand."

_And we've had LOS at White Sands, 10 1/2 minutes past deorbit. We'll have no word on crew status until Langley AOS:we’ll take the line down ‘till then. At 359 hours, 20 minutes since launch, this is Mission Control-Houston._

A soft 'ahem' caught Tony's attention. 

"Hello, Dr Wells. I see you made it back from Washington safely?"

Dr Rudy Wells was the unofficial 'doctor to the astronauts', a commissioned naval lieutenant with almost 20 years of experience at NASA under his belt and more experience developing bionic control systems for use in injury recovery. A few years ago,these had helped save the life of Colonel Steve Austin,a fellow astronaut who'd gotten injured in a test of the M2F5 advanced mini-jet at Edwards AFB in California. Austin had utilized Wells' bionic implants both during his subsequent space missions (both in Earth orbit and to the Moon) and (Astronaut Office rumor and scuttlebutt had it) in stopping organized crime and other 'Very Bad Things'. Tony wouldn't have put such things ahead of Austin:the man was a crusader to the core.

"Sure did,Colonel. Steve's stopping at MSFC to have his bionics checked. He'll be back in two days."

"I'll want to hear from him when he does get back here. The Lang situation’s still unsolved, in a way. Steve needs to make a final report on the matter."

"Is it true that John Young's retired?"

"Yep", Tony said, popping the 'p' as he said it. “As of September 1 he’s no longer an astronaut.”

“Shame. HQ had hoped to assign him the first Shuttle mission. Which is why I came here.”

Tony arched an eyebrow. The Space Shuttle,due to make its debut in mid-1980,was the next step in space exploration. A reusable spaceplane riding a pair of reusable rocket boosters and a disposable external fuel tank to orbit,the Shuttle would make spaceflight cheaper by virtue of its reusability. Only a few parts of an Apollo capsule could be reused,unless the Apollo was to make a land landing,which hadn’t been tried yet. There were those who said that the Shuttle represented no less than the very future of manned spaceflight.

”...You’re it.”

”What,Doctor? Say that again.”

”They’ve decided to assign you,Healey,and an as yet unidentified mission specialist to the first mission. It’s scheduled for October 1980 if nothing goes wrong,so you’ve plenty of time to prepare.”

”Say no more,Dr Wells. I accept.”

———-

Tony was gobsmacked. The images playing now on the Eidophor TV at the front of the room,showing Roger and his crewmates stepping onto the flight deck of the HMS Invincible out in the Atlantic,meant little and less to him. How on Earth had this happened? Tony could name,using the fingers on both hands,a score of equally qualified candidates. Neil Armstrong. Pete Conrad. Charlton Daniel. Frank Santelli. Lesley Wingate. Fred Haise. Ken Mattingly. Steve Austin. In fact,any pilot who'd been selected before about 1970 would do. So why him and Roger? Was it because they'd been best friends since before their induction into the astronaut corps,back in 1962? Because,way back on Apollo 16,they'd walked on the Moon together? Because they were the unofficial 'faces of the astronauts' to millions of Americans? Or was it all three?

Tony allowed himself a rueful smile as he left the JSC campus,begging off of the post-splashdown press conference already being organized in Building 1,and got in his sportscar for the drive back to Bellaire Boulevard.

After a less stressful then usual commute,marked only by a construction-related delay near the local AME church,Tony parked in front of the suburban house,shut off the motor,and walked up the steps. Nasturtiums,phlox,pansies,wildflowers.and camellias lined the walk on either side,giving it an air of controlled nature. Jeannie had attempted to plant a rose garden a few years ago. The results were still visible on the edges:a riot of red,green,and blue roses (thanks to her magic) swarming over the fake trellis she’d installed last year. The potato garden still thrived at least. _The American Dream, circa 1978. Gods...._

Entering the Colonial-style foyer,Tony set his suitcase in its usual rack and went into the kitchen to fix himself a drink of bourbon. As he did so,he made a mental note to clean the place. He was negotiating the icer when a distant _pop_ announced Jeannie’s arrival. She,their daughter Janae, and their little son TJ had gone shopping at the Houston Galleria.

”How was your day,Tony?”, Jeannie called from the parlor as she set the kids in their play area. “Did Roger make it back alright?”

Tony,bourbon in hand,crossed the house. “Yep. Jeannie,I’ve got to tell you something.”

She stood in front of him. “Go ahead.”

”Rudy Wells has offered me the first Shuttle mission.”

Jeannie’s expression remained emotionless. “And?”

”I said yes. Sometime in the autumn of 1980,myself,Roger,and an as yet unnamed mission specialist will take the Shuttle orbiter _Columbia_ up for two or three days in space. We’ll check out all its systems in space. It should be made public sometime over the winter.”

”Why then?”

“I suppose Rudy’s got his reasons.”

Jeannie hugged him. “If you want to fly on that Shuttle,then go ahead. We’ll be waiting for you in Houston.”


	3. Palmdale

**July 4,1978**

(Soundtrack - Thunderbird 6, the main theme)

It wasn’t as though Tony Nelson hadn’t seen a Shuttle before. He had been on a Shuttle committee at the beginning of the decade,helping negotiate details of the final Shuttle design. By 1973 or so,he couldn’t walk fifty feet at JSC without seeing at least one piece of Shuttle concept art. Later on,engineering models and mockups were added to the mix,like those tested in the Langley wind tunnels or in the vibration chambers at MSFC in Huntsville. And last year,when the test orbiter _Enterprise_ (now being modified for spaceflight next door) had been flown aloft atop a converted 747 and cut loose to test its wings,he’d been in Mission Control,sitting alongside Frank Santelli at the CAPCOM console. But this was the first time he’d seen a Shuttle close up. _Columbia_ sat on the main floor at North American Plant 42,surrounded by scaffoldings upon which swarmed (like the proverbial ant) countless workers,resembling nothing so much as the beached corpse of a whale as surrounded by curious onlookers.

At the front end of the bleached-white orbiter was the RCS pod,holding 16 of the 44 reaction control thrusters _Columbia_ would use for on-orbit maneuvers in space,and if a contingency deorbit burn was required at the end of a mission. A mixture of monomethyl hydrazine fuel and nitrogen tetroxide oxidizer powered the RCS thrusters during their firing phase:Tony had heard that it was the safest type of rocket propellant to handle. 28 more of the thrusters were in a compartment at the Shuttle’s aft end:14 in each of two pods. They each generated,Tony knew,about 800 pounds of thrust. The vernier RCS jets generated about 60 pounds.

Just behind the pod,and bulging up from it,was the Shuttle’s crew module. The crew module,where the crew would live and work during the mission,consisted of a flight deck and a crew deck. Through the tinted glass of the front windows Tony could catch the barest glimpse of the seats he and Roger would be sitting in during the launch and landing,seats built like those for airline pilots,because the Shuttle would be America’s airline to space. Behind those seats were two more. One seat,directly behind the pilot,would be empty during the first mission,excepting a small tank of solid ballast:on future missions this seat would play host to the payload commander,the astronaut in charge of the Shuttle’s primary cargo. The other seat,behind and between the commander and pilot,was for the flight engineer,who would assist the commander and pilot during critical mission phases. This would be the only mission specialist flying during the Shuttle’s test flights. Behind even that seat were controls for the deployment,retrieval,and monitoring of mission-specific payloads,as well as the controls for the Shuttle’s Canadian-built robotic arm. The flight deck was backed by two large windows that looked out onto the payload bay,and there were two smaller overhead windows for Earth observations and camera placement.

‘Underneath’ the flight deck was the crew deck, which was really more of a mid-deck. Accessible via a hatch in the aft flight deck,the crew deck contained the main habitable facilities of the Shuttle. Standing in its center,one would find the orbiter’s galley on his left,fronting the crew’s sleep stations. Next to that was a row of storage and experiment lockers,as well as a teleprinter through which Houston could send vital messages to the crew. Directly in front of him,our hypothetical observer would gaze upon the airlock,through which astronauts would enter the payload bay on spacewalks and return to the Shuttle afterwards. Up to three astronauts with spacesuits and five wearing normal clothes could fit within its circumference. 

The payload bay,measuring 15 feet in diameter by 60 feet in length,was a marvel of 1970s engineering. Two clamshell doors encapsulated the huge space, in which could fit up to 90,000 lbs worth of cargo,be it a satellite or three,a space station module,a cargo transport module,a space telescope,or fuel tanks.


End file.
